Chapter 75: Fashion Design Competition

The patterns that were sewn on, thread by thread, were unbelievably life-like. Every flower looked as if it was in bloom. The embroidery on the lower part of the dress exuded charm, and was simply captivating, especially on the collar and the cuffs of the sleeves. The silk edge complemented perfectly the exquisite and delicate hand sewn needlework, so much so that one could only gasp in admiration.

Machine sewing could never achieve such an effect, and Song Wuyou actually did it with her own hands.

An Zhanggong turned around, his eyes staring deeply at Song Wuyou. “It’s quite unbelievable that your talent in design is so advanced!”

He’d watched her progress from time to time. The way she used her skills and her familiarity with techniques, as well as the perfectness of the dress in front of him, seems to suggest that she makes them often.

Song Wuyou smiled modestly, “I only love retro style dresses.” This modern era’s style and design, she truly was helpless in that area. No skill and no inspiration – and has no idea whatsoever how coats and skirts were to be matched with shoes, either.

An Zhanggong, “I hope your love turns into a hot selling item in the European and American markets.”

……….

The annual fashion design competition will be held today in the Floating Clouds Exhibition Centre. This was a large scale innovative commercial fashion design competition. International companies from all over the globe were taking part in it.

The winning design will be awarded the ‘Han Silk Cup’ will be spearheading the trend of the brands in the European and American market. The companies that participated in the competition aimed to display their capability in front of the world, and at this time, the competition had already started.

The area below the T-shaped runway was crowded with audience members and participants from many different countries. The journalists were well equipped with long and short distance lenses, looking for exclusive shots, unwilling to let go of any designs on the runaway stage.

The first row of seats around the T-shaped runaway stage was allocated for judges coming from all over the globe. Every judge would give scores to one design at a time, and at the end, all the judges’ marks would be tallied to decide the top fifty contestants. These top fifty contestants would then be subject to public votes. Several rounds of voting would be used to determine the final champion, first runner-up, and second runner-up.

The second to the fifth rows around the T-shaped runway was allocated to the participating companies.

On the T-shaped stage, models strode across the runway wearing the participating designers’ creations, posing attractively to showcase what they were wearing.

Song Jiuyue and Song Jiumei were sitting in their seats, and in front of them were Gu Yanhao and An Zhanggong.

Gu Yanhao leaned into the chair elegantly, but his obsidian eyes were sharp as they scanned through every piece of design, but as his strongest rival, An Zhanggong, was inexplicably relaxed compared to Gu Yanhao. He would cast his gaze down, looking at his mobile phone, and sometimes he looked at the models on the runaway, extremely relaxed and very casual…

Looking over the designs on the models, Song Jiuyue’s confidence grew. None of these creations could be compared to hers. Those so-called creations were just imitations. Just making small changes or alterations here and there based on the most popular trends, no innovation at all.

Most of the retro designs available on the market were a replica of the qipao during the Qing Dynasty with some alterations that seemed totally different when out on a model that was five feet seven or five feet nine inches tall. There were several pieces that barely passed her scrutiny, but too bad they did not choose the right models. Just like a fresh flower decorating a cow’s head, attractive – but there were neither beauty nor elegance.

Finally!

The Gu Group’s creations were coming out.

This year, Gu Group only submitted five entries, and all of them were designed by Song Jiuyue. The participating entries were submitted under anonymous names to ensure fair play in the competition, therefore, only Gu Yanhao and Song Jiuyue knew they were Gu Group’s creations as the models strutted down the runway; no one else knew.

The moment these five entries appeared, some within the audience nearly applauded loudly in praise!

Each of the Gu Group’s five entries possessed a different flavor, all elegant and refined.

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Translator : Woodear Editor : Ocelot

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Thank you for the chapter. I am excited to see how Song Jiuyue’s designs fare against Song Wuyou’s singular throwback (way way back) gown.

Now, what struck me most this chapter was the comment about the models. 5’7″ or 5’9″…Most women in the European market would think a model who is 5’9″ is just starting height. As for the winners in this show being marketed to Europe and the Americas, the 5’7″ model had darn well better look Amazing in it or else the vast majority of the western market will not touch it; western female average height is 5’6″-5’7″, and nobody wants to wear something that even models can’t make look good.

Also, I get the flower-on-cow simile, but if you like cows it doesn’t scan. Some cows really are beautiful fore reasons of coloration, symmetry of features, etc, and adding a fresh flower is not likely to feel as out of place nor unbeautiful as she says. I suspect SJY is discriminating against cows, or possibly fresh flowers. La vache!

I’m reminded of another novel that described a girl with beautiful cow-like eyes. I immediately looked up cow eyes and yea the first thing I saw was a Snopes article on cow eyes, with the accompanying image. Definitely not beautiful!

I see where you’re coming from, but have you ever been to/seen an actual fashion show? The clothes that get modeled are ridiculous. I still don’t understand the correlation between what the models wear on the runway and what the companies actually end up selling to real people. Guess we’ll find out how the author will handle it because hand making dresses for export would definitely not be feasible for mass market.